Colossians 1:19-20

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"For it pleased the Father that in hint should all fulness dwell: and having made peace through the blood of his Cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (Colossians 1:19 , Colossians 1:20 .)

When it is represented that this whole action was an expression of the pleasure of the Father, we are to understand that it revealed the Divine purpose: not one accident occurred in all the development of the suffering of Christ: every nail was foreseen; every pang was anticipated; the whole human history, though apparently a succession of surprises, was a development of what had existed in thought and purpose from eternity. The fulness of God dwelt in Jesus Christ. It pleased God that in him should all fulness dwell; that is, it was in accordance with the Divine pleasure, or the Divine thought; it was also in accordance with the consent and purpose of Christ. Because the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Jesus, he is adored not only as Mediator, but as God; a great mystery in words, and not to be easily removed by the apparatus of grammar, but to be felt in its ineffable sweetness by those who live most deeply and tenderly the life divine. What a descent from "all things that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers," to "the blood of his Cross"! Is there a more humiliating expression in all language? Yet we misunderstand the word "blood"; we think of it only in its literal signification; whereas we should think of it as the very expression of life, the very mystery of being, the symbol by which we get some insight into the heart, the tenderness, the passion, and the power of "all things." Jesus Christ is not only the creator of glory, he is the maker of peace; he is the Prince of Peace; he came to give peace; the peace which he has made is between God and man; he has reconciled the sinner; he has provided the atonement. I am more and more assured that we err, and grievously impoverish ourselves, by endeavouring to reduce the atonement of Christ to words: where we use words at all, it should rather be to show that their very fulness is their emptiness, their very pride is their humiliation; for no words can touch the agony of the love of God. We see the atonement but once. We see it with the eyes of the soul. It is a flash, a blinding blaze; it is of the nature of the vision that smote Saul to the earth; yet we can never forget the out-flashing of that sacred glory.